Cellular telephones offer the advantage of being able to communicate from mobile locations. However, existing cellular telephones suffer from the disadvantage of not being as reliable as “land-line” telephones. Cellular telephones tend to be more reliable in certain areas, such as downtown urban centers, rather than in other areas, such as outside of the downtown cores and in rural areas, where they are less reliable. In these less reliable areas, cellular telephone users generally experience an increased incidence of dropped calls. Dropped calls may result from a termination of the signal if there is interference or if a mobile user passes through a “dead zone” without coverage.
Dead zones generally result from inadequate coverage by cellular telephone providers. Present day cellular telephone technology is provided through the use of towers or nodes that are spaced at intervals. These towers or nodes have a high probability of receiving transmissions from cellular telephones within a certain radius of the tower or node. Outside of this radius, the probability of the tower receiving the transmission from the cellular telephone decreases.
However, due to various factors including constraints in technology causing degradation of signals and a concomitant reduction in signal range, location placement of the towers or nodes, and interference with signals, such as from hydro towers, cellular telephone calls are not presently 100% reliable. In fact, with the present technology, cellular telephone calls are often dropped, and the call terminated. The user must then remake the call to the other party or wait for the other party to call him or her. This is especially inconvenient in the case of the transmission or reception of a large amount of information, for example using a cellular telephone in conjunction with a personal digital assistant or a laptop computer.
Conventional approaches to this problem have been to increase the area of coverage through increasing the number of towers or nodes which transmit and receive signals. However, this involves a large degree of capital expenditure and results in an increased number of parallel cellular telephone networks.
It would accordingly be advantageous to provide a device and method of ensuring the reliability of cellular telephone calls to ensure that calls are maintained and not dropped.
The present invention thus provides a method of transmitting and receiving telephone signals comprising transmitting a first signal from a first device over a first cellular network, simultaneously transmitting a second signal substantially identical to the first signal over a second cellular network, receiving at least the first and second signals at a second device, synchronizing at least the first and second signals into one combined signal; and combining at least the first and second signals into one combined signal.
The invention further comprising the steps of determining at least two identifying numbers representing the second device prior to transmission over the two cellular networks; transmitting the combined signal from the second device to a third device; checking for the termination of transmission of either the first or second signal and reestablishing connection for the terminated signal; simultaneously transmitting a third signal substantially identical to the first and second signals over a third cellular network wherein the first, second and third signals are synchronized and combined into one combined signal; and simultaneously transmitting an nth signal substantially identical to the first signal over an nth cellular network wherein the first through nth signals are synchronized and combined into one combined signal.
The invention also provides a cellular telephone system comprising a first telephone device adapted to simultaneously transmit a first signal over a first cellular network and at least a substantially identical second signal over a second cellular network, and a second telephone device adapted to receive at least the first and second signals and to synchronize and combine at least the first and second signals into one combined signal.
The invention further provides a processing device to determine at least two identifying numbers representing the second telephone device prior to transmission over cellular networks.
The invention also provides a third telephone device adapted to receive the combined signal from the second telephone device.
The invention further comprising a check for the termination of transmission of either the first or second signal and re-establishes connection for the terminated signal.
The invention also providing the first telephone device additionally adapted to simultaneously transmit a third signal substantially identical to the first and second signals over a third cellular network and the second telephone device additionally adapted to receive the third signal and to synchronize and combine the first, second and third signals into one combined signal.
The invention further providing the first telephone device additionally adapted to simultaneously transmit an nth signal substantially identical to the first signal over an nth cellular network and the second telephone device additionally adapted to receive the nth signal nd to synchronize and combine the first through nth signals into one combined signal.
In the drawings, preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example. Other further advantages and features of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description thereof and the accompanying drawings.
It is expressly understood that the description and drawings are illustrative of certain embodiments of the invention, but the invention itself is defined by the accompanying claims.